Download The Analysis of International Low Carbon City (ILCC) in Shenzhen

China’s move towards a New Low-Carbon Development Mode? The
Analysis of International Low Carbon City (ILCC) in Shenzhen
1
Authors: Linjun Xie1, Ali Cheshmehzangi1, May Tan-Mullins1
The University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC), Ningbo, China
Word count: 5799
Abstract
Decarbonisation and the promotion of low-carbon development have become common goals
of climate change mitigation around the world. Respectively, China as a large developing
country, faces complex challenges of accelerating urbanization and industrialization, and is in
dire need to speed up changes to its economic development patterns. In 2010, China launched
the first batch of pilot low-carbon province and city projects, including five provinces and
eight cities across the nation; one of which is the City of Shenzhen in South China. Since then,
low-carbon city projects have become widespread and are deemed as pilot practices for a
sustainable urban transition mode towards green and low-carbon development. Although a
myriad of researches have explored this emerging field, few have probed into the
development process of China’s low carbon cities. It remains unknown that to what extend
and how low carbon principles are integrated into the development strategies and practices of
these projects. In this respect, this paper aims to fill this void by delving into low carbon city
development process through an analysis of the renowned case of the International LowCarbon City (ILCC) in Shenzhen. This study is based on a brief review of two typical
development models in China, namely the ‘Development Zones’ of 1990s (kaifaqu) and the
‘New Cities’ of the 2000s (xincheng). Further evaluation of the case study is then conducted
through the analysis of its development strategy. The analysis of the ILCC’s financing and
investment system, land development approaches, actors and actors’ roles, and regulatory
mode will be further discussed into three categories of ‘place production’, ‘place
consumption’, and ‘place marketing’, while the examination of low carbon’s involvement and
embodiment will be incorporated throughout the study. The conducted analysis suggests that
ILCC’s development mode blends some features of both kaifaqu and xincheng development
models, while it also presents new low carbon characteristics of its own. This study provides a
glimpse into the current implementation of the ILCC project and will be a reference for future
study on the project’s prospect and evaluation as it proceeds. Moreover, it will contribute to
the overall study of China’s low carbon city development attempts.
Key words: Low-Carbon, China, Development Model, ILCC, Shenzhen.
1
1.
Introduction
In recent years, a series of major policy measures has been adopted by the Chinese
government to control greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and mitigate and adapt to climate
change. Among them is the vigorously and firmly support of the low-carbon city development.
Being widely regarded as a direct response to the recent climate change debate and the related
role of cities, low-carbon city is initiated to minimize the human inflicted carbon footprint by
reducing or even eliminating non-renewable energy resources usage and promoting lowcarbon economy (De Jong, 2015). In 2008, the demonstration project of low-carbon city was
jointly launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MoHURD) and
the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), which heralds the massive development of low-carbon city
across the nation. In 2010, China has launched the first batch of pilot low-carbon province
and city projects, including five provinces and eight cities, to carry out pilot activities for
green and low-carbon development nationwide; one of which is the City of Shenzhen in
South China (National Development and Reform Commission, 2012). Since then, low-carbon
city projects have become widespread and are deemed as pilot practices for a sustainable
urban transition mode towards green and low-carbon development.
The upsurge of China’s low-carbon city construction in recent years draws attention of urban
researchers and practitioners, and a myriad of researches have been conducted to explore this
emerging field. Discussion widely includes China low-carbon city’s initiatives (Yang and Li,
2013), roadmap (Wang et al., 2012), challenges (Su et al., 2012a, Liu and Salzberq, 2012,
Khanna et al., 2014), evaluation/indicator system (Su et al., 2012b, Hu et al., 2016, Wang et
al., 2012, Zhou et al., 2012), requirements and policy recommendation (Yang and Li, 2013,
Baeumler et al., 2012a), and international cooperation (Baeumler et al., 2012a). Although a
few studies have generally mention China low-carbon city’s contemporary practices and their
effects (Su et al., 2016), none has probed into the detail development process of specific lowcarbon city project. Although there is no universally applicable definition of low-carbon city
due to city’s essential human-centric nature over simple carbon reduction commitment and
the diverse initial carbon endowments across different cities (Baeumler et al., 2012b), China’s
low-carbon city projects are initiated by the government with an expectation to leapfrog and
bypass the polluting and high-carbon growth paths to achieve green economic development.
Moreover, there is a strong alignment between low-carbon and locally appropriate sustainable
development strategies for cities (ibid.). Consequently, low-carbon city is widely recognized
as a pilot practice for a new development mode in China (Liu et al., 2009, Su et al., 2012a,
Cai and Wang, 2010, Shao, 2015), and can be perceived as a form of field research to study
the effectiveness of local strategies (Hu et al., 2016). Although different cities should have
different development patterns of “low-carbon city” due to their own condition of natural
2
endowment, economic development level, industrial structure, social culture, and urban
development orientation (Su et al., 2012a), a study of the practical construction of low-carbon
city development can inform discourse and research in this arena and contribute to the
potential improvement of China’s low-carbon city attempts.
This paper initiates to explore the development process of low-carbon city projects in China.
The two main questions raised in this paper are: first, how does low-carbon development
process differentiate from traditional urban development in China? And, second, to what
extent low carbon initiatives have been integrated in the development process, and thus shape
a low-carbon development mode? To explore these questions, this paper firstly reviews the
land development progress in China in section 2 of this paper. The brief review is based upon
the insightful analysis of two typical development modes in China by Hsing (2012) namely
the ‘Development Zones’ of 1990s (kaifaqu) and the ‘New Cities’ of the 2000s (xincheng).
Before delving into the development pattern discussion of the ILCC project, section 3 of this
paper introduces the project and its management mechanism in brief. Drawing on the
framework developed by Hsing (2012) in analysing the development strategies of xincheng
projects, section 4 categories the discussion of ILCC’s development strategy into “place
production”, “place consumption”, and “place marketing”. The analysis here incorporates the
examination of low-carbon’s involvement and embodiment, and the discussion of ILCC’s
financing and investment system, land development approaches, actors and actors’ roles, and
regulatory measures. Finally, section 5 discusses the findings of the study and section 6
provides a list of concluding remarks.
2.
A review of two Typical Development Modes during China’s Industrialization
and Urbanization Process
China’s unprecedented industrialization and urbanization in the past decades inevitably result
in eye-popping scale and pace of urban expansion, which comes with vast transformation of
farmland into construction land (Hsing, 2012). In order to meet the great demand of urban
service to accommodate swelling urban population and the need of economic growth, as well
as to avoid fierce and chaotic urban sprawl, urban government at the prefectural, municipal
and district levels constantly devotes efforts to identify approaches to guide China’s
urbanization towards healthy and harmonious development in a planned way. Throughout the
progress, Hsing (2012) insightfully points out two typical types of land development modes in
China’s urban fringe, namely the Development Zone (kaifaqu) in the 1980s-1990s, and New
Cities (xincheng) of the 2000s, which provide good indications of the historical shift from
industrialism to urbanism in China since the late 1990s. Since low-carbon city is a product of
contemporary China which booms all across the nation in recent years, and is regarded as a
3
pilot practice of defining a sustainable development model, the analysis of its development
pattern should draw knowledge from its precedents.
Along with the deepening market reforms and vigorous promotion of industrialization after
Deng Xiaoping’s “southern tour” to Shenzhen in early 1990s, numerous kaifaqu was initiated
by rural governments at the county, township, and village level (Hsing, 2012). The initial aim
is to accommodate the so-called Township and Village Enterprises (TVEs), which are
collective enterprises and are owned and/or managed by townships and villages, and are
credited with the source of the first wave of growth in the post-Mao period. However, since
the mid-1990s, small- and medium-sized TVEs with low technology and capital thresholds
gradually lose their advantages in the increasingly competitive domestic and international
markets. To supplement the declining consumers of kaifaqu, local governments adopt
incentive policies to attract outside investors. With an expectation to promote industrial
development and boost local GDP growth, the government levied rural land and then offered
the land to investors for free in exchange for an investment commitment. Although selling
kaifaqu land cheaply brought short-term benefits, it was proved to be an ineffective approach
for local accumulation and has produced severe social issue and land wastage. The massive
and chaotic Kaifaqu development eventually has been suppressed in the early 2000s after a
serious of policies have been enforced by the central government.
Since the late 1990s, when kaifaqu development mode struggles, a historical shift from
industrialism to urbanism has been underway. In the 2000s, urban government at the
prefecture or sub-provincial levels takes over the lead to develop rural land for urban
expansion. “New City” (xincheng) projects well epitomize the numerous strategies proposed
by urban governments (Hsing, 2012). While kaifaqu strives to promote industrial
development, xincheng projects are launched with the commitment to build a city as a whole.
Hsing (2012) categorises xincheng development’s strategies into “place production”, “place
consumption”, and “place marketing”. Briefly speaking, through planning, zoning and
infrastructure investment, urban governments prepare the land for future construction and
create locational advantage to increase property values in designated places. The heavy initial
investment by the urban government will be paid back when premium lands’ use rights were
sold to developers. To stimulate the consumption of mass production of new properties,
especially the majority residential buildings, the so-called “economy of demolition and
relocation” (chaiqian jingji) is developed, which means demolishing old housing to create
mass demands for new housing needs (Hsing, 2012: 108). To evades the risk of uncertain
demands in newly develop areas far from urban centre, University Towns (daxuecheng) as a
variant of xincheng are born since they bring a captive consumer group formed by college
4
students and staff and hence boost the vitalization of new born urban space, although some of
the xincheng projects still suffer from the inadequate demand of the mass production. In terms
of the “place marketing” strategies, instead of offering favourable investment packages to
investors as the kaifaqu, the xincheng projects raise their competitiveness through the
operation of image production and city marketing, which called “economy of the spectacle,”
or yanqiu jingji (Hsing, 2012: 111). A set of measures, such as spotlight events, landmark
constructions, and the establishment of Central Business Districts (CBD), is adopted by cities
to create modern and prosperous city image to attract investors and visitors.
It is evident from above analysis that kaifaqu and xincheng projects show distinct
development features. The kaifaqu development mode well demonstrates China’s
industrialization commitment in the 1990s, whereas xincheng projects symbolize the
urbanism political will to build a whole city from scratch. Table 1 shows more about the
comparative analysis of kaifaqu and xincheng development modes. The analysis of the case
study of International Low-carbon City in Shenzhen in next section will draw on the review
of these two development models.
Table 1: Comparison of Development Zone of the 1990s and New City of the 2000s (Hsing,
2012: 114)
Political
discourse
Main local
state actors
Role of state
actor
Project type
Spatial pattern
Kaifaqu (Development Zone) of the
1990s
Industrialism
Xincheng (New City) of the 2000s
Rural County, Township, and
Village governments
Collective enterprise managers
Cities at the prefecture level and
above
Urban promoter and developer
Industrial parks and small scale
housing complex
Mixed-use “new cities” that
include residential, commercial
and service
Large-scale, concentrated around
urban fringe
Engaging in urban place
production, marketing and
consumption
Active incorporation of rural land
as urban development reserves;
creating locational advantage to
increase property values
Increase of property price; GDP
contribution from real estate and
infrastructure investment
Consolidation of territorial
authority in the hands of large
municipalities that function as
leading cities of metropolitan
Role of Urban
Planning
Small-scale, scattered in rural
hinterland
Offering favourable investment
packages and low land prices to
industrial investors
Passive justification of farmland
conversion for industrial uses
Measures of
success
Industrial output and GDP
contribution from industrial output
Implication for
Urban-centred
Territorial
Governance
Unmanageable decentralization led
by undisciplined rural cadres in
townships and villages
Strategy
5
Urbanism
regions.
3.
Introduction of the Shenzhen International Low Carbon City (ILCC) Project
Titled as a National Low Carbon Pilot City, Shenzhen International Low Carbon City (ILCC)
has been a focus of attention since its launch in August 2012, and thereby serves as a good
example for China’s low carbon city practice. ILCC is located in Pingdi Sub-district of
Longgang District, a junction of Shenzhen, Dongguan and Huizhou. Originally, Pingdi SubDistrict is economically underdeveloped with high carbon emission level: In 2013, its GDP
reached RMB 6.972 billion, and per capita GDP equalled to 1/5 of the city’s average level,
while its carbon emission per RMB 10,000 GDP was 2.5 times that of the city’s average level.
With the essential need to substantially develop local economy and reduce carbon emission,
the ILCC project is produced with the aim to build a pioneering zone ‘to explore a new
urbanization road by renovation and transformation as well as industry transformation and
upgrading to realize rapid growth in quality and gradual reduction of carbon emissions in the
urban built up areas’ (ILCC, no date: 14).
Low-carbon city development requires extensive long-term public interventions with
sustainable municipal finance mechanisms (Liu and Salzberg, 2012). The management
mechanism in ILCC advocates a multi-party participation, which involves municipal and
district government, state-owned developers, and other public and private sectors. Initially,
ILCC establishes an ‘A+1+2+N’ management mechanism with the leading ‘A’ refers the
‘National Shenzhen International Low Carbon City Steering Committee’, in which the
National Development and Reform Commission is the director unit, with relevant Ministries
and main leaders of Shenzhen Municipal Government as members. “1” is the Construction
Leading Group Office of ILCC project (Municipal Low-carbon Office), which is the resident
agency of Shenzhen Municipal Government. “2” refers two units, Longgang District
government and Shenzhen Construction and Development Group co., ltd (CDG).
‘N’
represents all institutions settled in the ILCC. This management system seeks to explore a
new management model that is led by municipal government, and cooperated by district
government (Longgang District government), while appointed state-owned company (CDG)
as the main development unit, to agglomerate social resources to jointly promote low-carbon
city development. Overall, the Longgang district government is responsible for overall
planning and the preparation of the constructed land, while the CDG or other developers
provides investment, conduct infrastructure construction, and also function as an operator.
To help understanding the role of the CDG, a brief introduction is presented here. CDG is a
large-scale state-owned investment and financing company set up in 2011 to “speed up the
6
reform of the investment system and promote the integration process of Shenzhen Special
Administration Region” (Sztqjf.com, no date). Essentially, CDG is a municipal “chengtou
gongsi”, which can be translated approximately as City Investment Company (CIC). The
origin of “chengtou gongsi” in China stems from the governmental invest-finance system
reform in 1991, which prohibits local government directly financing city physical
development projects. However, vast construction of urban infrastructure and development of
public projects requires strong financial support from the state. To solve this difficult
position of local government, “chengtou gongsi” has been established to serve as a platform
for social projects’ investment, financing, and operation. The relationship between CICs and
the government can be understood as an “entrust-agent-management” relationship. Stated
plainly, CIC is a development company owned by the government to carry out governmental
construction projects.
As ILCC project launched, the municipal government has the final authority over a
hierarchically organized set of jurisdictions that include urban districts and rural counties and
townships in terms of major development projects, which means that Shenzhen municipal
government takes charge of the administrative examination and approval of the ILCC
development, and the municipal-run chengtou gongsi – the CDG – plays a prominent
developer role at the beginning of the ILCC project. However, due to the deepening reform of
“Streamline Administration and Institute Decentralization” (jianzheng fangquan) in Shenzhen,
administrative power of key social project is gradually devolved to the district government1.
As the power of the Longgang District government has gradually expanded and strengthened,
its own chengtou gongsi is also getting more and more involved in the project. However,
since district-run chengtou gongsi plays the same role as CDG does in the ILCC, to facilitate
analysis of the development strategies of the ILCC, the following discussion mainly taking
CDG’s projects as examples.
4.
The Analysis of ILCC’s Development Strategies
The ILCC project plans a stepped-development by developing a Start-up Area of 1 square
kilometre, and then further to the Expansion Area of 5 square kilometres, and gradually the
whole area of 53.4 square kilometres. Since the current construction and achievement of this
According to the “Notice on furthering decentralisation to accelerating the Development and
Construction of Key Regions” issued in September 2014, the construction project bidding, cost
management, construction permit, quality and safety supervision, and final acceptance and filing of all
social investment projects in 13 key areas in Shenzhen (except those projects required approval from
the State or Provincial Development and Reform Commission, and those exceeding the limit of highrise buildings), are all fell in the management by the construction department of the affiliated district or
new district (Shenzhen Housing and Construction Bureau, 2014). The ILCC project is one of the 13
key areas.
1
7
project are still concentrated on the 1 km² Start-up Area, the following study of the
development mode mainly focuses on activities within this area while referring a little to its
future development. The analysis of the development strategies of the ILCC adopts the
themes used by Hsing (2012) in discussing about xincheng’s development methods, namely
“place production”, “place consumption” and “place marketing”. However, the interpretations
of these three themes are different in this study. In the following discussion, “place
production” will try to answer the question that how ILCC is developed on a partly built-up
area to accommodate mass companies introduced in the projects; the “place consumption”
section will discuss the strategies used in the ILCC to attract developers and companies; and
the “place marketing” section will review the marketing tactics adopted in the ILCC to raise
its competitiveness in the wider context. Notably, although following discussion of the
ILCC’s development strategies is divided into three parts, they co-exist and complement each
other through the development process of the ILCC.
4.1 Place production: retrofitting and incremental development
Under the circumstance of the shortage of development land resource in Shenzhen, Pingdi’s
low density and relatively abundant land reserve endow the area incomparable advantages
due to its low development cost. However, Pingdi Sub-district’s available development land
mainly consists of fragmented and disconnected land plots, which is difficult for cluster
development (Bi, 2015). Besides local rural community’s residential building clusters, there
are low-end scattered industrial plants and affiliate dormitory buildings with a messy layout
(Dong and Hao, 2014). The ILCC project recognized the primary tasks for land preparation
and place production, and proposed an “innovative pathway”, which “has abandoned the
traditional ideas of extensive planning, demolition and development, by applying new
urbanization strategies which are more practical and people-oriented.” (ILCC, 2016: 222).
The strategies comprise with two major approaches, namely retrofitting and incremental
development, and communication and collaboration among government, communities, and
residents are pronounced in both approaches.
When the ILCC project was set in motion, the Shenzhen municipal government and
Longgang district government promptly set about to deploy and start the work of preparation
of 3 km² land (Bi, 2015). Inspired by the village-wide harmonized development practice of
Pingshan New Area in Shenzhen, a land preparation and benefit sharing plan has been
formulated, which is led by the government, run by communities, and participated in by local
residents (ILCC, 2016: 222). Local communities and residents’ communication with the
government is channelled by their representative entities, namely the Community Stocksharing Cooperative Enterprises (CSCEs), which is an evolutionary product of the “rural
8
collective economic organization”. The origin and development of the CSCE fall beyond the
scope of this study. But in short, CSCE represents the village community in managing and
operating communities’ collective-owned properties, which are transformed into equal shares
for the start-up of the CSCEs. Indigenous villagers are the shareholders of the CSCE.
Pingdi has a total six community companies and 50 branches, and the main income of the
community largely came from factory building leasing. The weak foundation and the single
structure of community economy render imbalance and unstable future development (Bi,
2015). Therefore, the cooperation with the government to upgrade local properties and
accommodate high-end industries brings great opportunities for the local economy. To
facilitate land preparation and place production, the government brings comprehensive plan
of the ILCC project, and shows tangible benefits to the community. One example well
demonstrates the collaboration between local CSCE and the government, which is the
transformation project of Yishe. Yishe is a hotel which combines many functions, such as
hotel, apartment, office, catering, leisure, and business. It was once a factory dormitory
building owned by a local CSCE named Gekeng Community Stock-sharing Cooperative
Enterprise. After communication and negotiation, the CDG signed a three-year contract with
the Gekeng CSCE and obtained the using right, and performed the renovation abiding by the
three-star standard of the national green building regulation (see figure 1 &2). After the 3year rent contract, the transformed building with low-carbon technology and design will be
handed to the community. Through the green low-carbon renovation of existing industrial
plants and villages, the ILCC manage to provide space for the first batch enterprises and
public technical platform in a short period of time (Yang, 2014). This approach is part of the
strategy named as “Tenglong Huanniao” (“Vacating Cages to Change Birds”), which means
closing down backward and carbon-intensive industries and replacing with high-tech and lowcarbon industries.
Figure 1 & 2: Before and after the transformation of the previous dormitory building.
Source: http://www.ilcc.com.cn/Project/Default.aspx?fl=2&p=2 (ILCC’s official website)
9
Besides retrofitting projects, incremental development also plays a key role for
accommodating imported industrial and urban constructions, and also involves close
cooperation between government and the community. Undeveloped land in Pingdi Subdistrict has been long-time claimed by villagers or communities. However, since the
collective-owned land cannot be commodified and traded in China, the authorities have to
seek an approach that can produce land plots for massive development while satisfying local
communities. Inspiring by the pilot practice of land development in Pingshan District in
Shenzhen, the ‘Zhengcun Tongchou’ strategy, which is a government-community-resident
collaborative mode, is gradually implemented in the ILCC. The critical content in this mode
is sorting out the interest relationship between the government, communities, and the
residents. Briefly speaking, government takes the lead on the development of the land while
compensate the community by providing a portion of land with appointed planning function
or index, or by subsidies (the land, building and subsidy can be converted with each other).
Meanwhile, the community has the autonomy to develop or outsource the compensated land
to address residents’ demand and wishes. Through this process, a win-win-win result can be
achieved while the space need of the ILCC can be met.
4.2 Place consumption: infrastructure construction, preferential policies, and
agglomeration effect
When ample land and space are produced in the ILCC, the other key issue is to attract
enterprises and people to consume these places. At the outset of the ILCC project, a few
factors are identified by its research team that need to be addressed to attract future investors
and inhabitants, which includes lack of basic public service, problematical public transport,
and lack of availability of higher education to support high-technology development and
high-value added production and services (de Jong et al., 2013). Backward infrastructure and
poor accessibility are common problems facing by newly-built development projects outside a
mature urban environment. Therefore, speeding up the infrastructure construction and
transport development are the primary tasks for developers. So far, efforts are made and can
be seen in the ILCC Start-up area and Pingdi Sub-district. For example, the construction of
the shared ditches was implemented before the solid construction of development land is in
motion. Water management facilities (municipal sewage pipelines, recycled water pipelines)
are planned for comprehensive utilization of reclaimed water, and energy supply structure
(mainly renewable energy projects such as solar energy, wind energy, biomass energy, and
natural gas power generation projects) are planned and installed. With regard to transportation
improvement, in the last few years, ILCC has built or revamped 23 public roads, including
Puzi Road, Jiqiao Road and Zhenxing Road (ILCC, 2016). Meanwhile, the eastern extension
10
of Shenzhen Metro Line 3, which will extend to the ILCC, has been approved by the National
Development and Reform Commission in 2016, and is currently undergoing construction.
Once it is connected, a substantial number of highly trained workers from elsewhere can be
expected.
Although good infrastructure and accessibility are essential for new urban area development,
to strengthen urban economic competitiveness requires a range of strategies, and the
construction of large-scale mega-projects to attract corporate investment is among one of
them that usually deployed by local government (Brenner and Theodore, 2002). Combining
“low-carbon” and “innovation” as its key pathway for green industrial development, ILCC is
lunched to develop a cluster covering R&D, design, production and other nodes of green and
low carbon industrial development characterized by “high-end” leadership and innovative
drive (ILCC, 2016). Besides promulgating a high-profile project programme with detail
planning, the ILCC also adopts a series of preferential policies for investment attraction and
further
relies
on the exertion of conglomeration effect of
the
leading
industrial
and
commercial enterprises. According to our survey with the CDG at the end of 2016, the ILCC
initially targeting eight industries development yet is focused on two main industries during
the developing process, namely aerospace industry and high-end equipment manufacturing
industry. Here we take the Aerospace industry development in the ILCC to exemplify the
promoting methods in the ILCC for low-carbon industries attraction. In September 2013,
Shenzhen Municipal Government and China Astronaut Research and Training Centre signed
strategic cooperation framework agreement to establish the Aerospace Science & Technology
South Centre (ASTSC) in the ILCC, which includes Southern Research Institute of Space
Technology (SRIST), Space Technology Specialist College, and Aerospace Science Park. To
facilitate the cooperation and accelerate ASTSC’s settlement, massive investment and support
have been provided by the CDG. The expenses for the transformation and decoration of
ASTSC’s office buildings are fully covered by the CDG (considering the lower cost, timesaving and low-carbon feature of retrofitting than newly-built, the office buildings provided
for the ASTSC are renovated from previous industrial buildings). Moreover, CDG offers a
three-year free rent of those buildings to the ASTSC. In June 2014, the SRIST was completed
and the ASTSC was inaugurated in the Start-up Area of the ILCC. Since then, aerospacerelated industries race to ILCC to seek for company bases. The agglomeration effect of
leading industry has well demonstrated.
ILCC’s development is believed to be driven by low-carbon industries, and new
developments are encouraged to use low-carbon products and incubate related industries
(ILCC, 2016). Entry and elimination criteria have been established for introducing strategic
emerging industries and guiding upgrading of traditional industries. Baselines have been
11
defined in terms of tax payment, carbon emissions intensity, local average carbon emissions
etc. for introducing and eliminating industries and increase the outputs in ILCC, and
ultimately realize its planned objectives (ibid.). By focusing on the promotion of development,
application and industrialization of low-carbon technology, ILCC has strengthened
cooperation with other well-known research institutions, such as China Academy of
Engineering Physics, Berkeley Laboratory, University of Massachusetts, and Tsinghua
University. In the meantime, more emerging low-carbon industrial projects entered ILCC,
including Weistek 3D Printing Facility, Energy Efficiency and Environmental Protection
Industrial Park.
4.3 Place marketing: branding effect and image production
To enhance its competitiveness in a wider context, the ILCC also adopts a set of marketing
tactics, mainly comprise of the branding effect and image production. These are well
manifested in the host of Shenzhen International Low Carbon City Forum and the
development of the Demonstration Area.
In June 2013, after the completion of the principal works of Shenzhen International Low
Carbon City Exhibition Centre, the first Shenzhen ILCC Forum was successfully held. The
two-day forum attracted 1,438 participants from 16 countries and regions and those from the
National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural
Development, the Guangdong Provincial Government, the Shenzhen municipal government,
as well as those from international organizations, foreign agencies in China, domestic and
foreign research institutes, and enterprises. As instructed by the Municipal government and
CPC Committee of Shenzhen, ILCC works to develop Shenzhen ILCC Forum into a worldclass forum and create a platform for global cooperation and exchange in the low-carbon field.
The yearly forum has attracted a wide range of domestic and foreign government agencies,
international organizations and transnational companies as well as various low-carbon
resources from the world, having been a highlight of Shenzhen’s as well as China’s lowcarbon development. With this platform, the ILCC has carried out wide communication and
interaction with institutions and individuals from developed countries and regions, having
enhanced its influence in the field of environment and low-carbon development, and become
a symbol of low-carbon city development. Pingdi leveraged the influence of the ILCC Forum
in actively attracting competitive enterprises.
Besides the successful branding effect resulting from the spotlight event of international
forum host, the demonstration area developed primarily in the ILCC has well produced its
low-carbon image. The Start-up area in the ILCC, which is the 1 square kilometre area along
12
the Dingshan River at Gaoqiao, is defined to be the experimental and model area focusing
demonstration projects featuring various low-carbon technologies. At the primary stage of the
ILCC development, it has made full use of the existing vacant land for restoring the
ecosystem and topography, creating eco-friendly landscapes, and building low-carbon
buildings, agriculture and horticulture facilities. Its construction and development process
present the low carbon feature as branded in its name. Take the construction of the
Comprehensive Service Centre project as an example, the principal structure is composed of
light steels, and standard components were fabricated and then delivered to the site for
erection with increased efficiency and reduced pollution. Through the rapid development of
the starting development zone through a mix of approaches of adoption of light construction
material, renovation of existing buildings, and utilization of vacant land, ILCC manages to
build a small yet comprehensive demonstration image to play its propaganda window to
enhance local vitality and attract low-carbon enterprises (Yang, 2014), which not only bring
confidence to the future development, but also expand the social attention and influence.
5.
Discussions
Based on the study of the current development process and the analysis of the development
strategies of the ILCC, we argue that the ILCC’s development blends some features of both
kaifaqu and xincheng development models, while it also presents new low carbon
characteristics of its own. Centred on the development of its Start-up Area, the initial stage of
the ILCC project displays typical industrialism features. Similar to the kaifaqu development
in the 1990s, the Start-up Area displays the feature of “industrial park” where enterprises
conglomerate, and favourable investment packages and low land prices are offered to
industrial investors to attract enterprises and promote “place consumption”. Moreover,
promoting GDP increase from industrial output is one of the key measurements of ILCC’s
achievement, while the “city” feature is hard to find at the current stage as there is no real
estate project undergoing in the ILCC. Nonetheless, as the target of achieving “Integrated
Industrial and Urban Development”, or chancheng ronghe, is highlighted, the ILCC project
aims to build a national comprehensive demonstration district of low-carbon development,
rather than a low-carbon industrial park. Although the image of a composite city is hard to
imagine at the current stage, we might be able to expect it in the “Extension Area” and whole
area of 53.4 square kilometres.
On the other hand, the development pattern of the ILCC also incorporates some tactics of the
xincheng development in the 2000s. Firstly, under the guidance of the municipal government,
which provide general direction, local district government plays the promoter and coordinator
role and leads the ILCC project. Longgang District government takes responsibility of
13
infrastructure construction, land preparation and place production. Most of the construction
work is carried out by state-owned developing companies, and involved extensive discussion,
negotiation, and cooperation with local community and residents. Furthermore, the
development of the ILCC adopts a similar “place marketing” tactic as the xincheng
development through the branding effect of the spotlight events (the yearly Shenzhen ILCC
Forum) and image production (the image demonstration of the Start-up Area).
While a mix of kaifaqu and xincheng developments’ features are displayed in the ILCC
project, this low-carbon city pilot project also demonstrates its peculiar low-carbon
characteristics. Firstly, during the place production, low-carbon principal leads both the
retrofitting and newly-built developments by strict enforcement of environmental rules and
regulations, promotion of the application of low-carbon materials, and compliance with
Green-building Standards. Secondly, low carbon emission and little impact on the ecological
environment are among the five principals of the industry selection2, and the admittance of
industries rigorously refers to the Catalogue of Industrial Development Guidance of Shenzhen
International Low-Carbon City, which places great consideration of the low carbon factor in
enterprises’ manufacturing process, products, and functions. Also, owing to the
agglomeration effect of leading low-carbon industries, the ILCC promises to accommodate a
cluster of low-carbon industries, and enterprises are encouraged to carry out independent
R&D and apply low-carbon and energy-saving technology. Table 2 below summarises the
features of the ILCC development.
Table 2: A summary of the development of ILCC
Political
discourse
Main local state
actors
Role of state
actor
Project type
Spatial pattern
Strategy
International Low Carbon City (ILCC) in
Shenzhen
Low-carbon industrialism and urbanism (starts
from industrial development and is expected to
achieve comprehensive urban development)
District government
Features
Low-carbon city promoter and developer
Xincheng + Lowcarbon
Kaifaqu + xincheng
+Low-carbon
Low-carbon industrial park of the start-up area,
and mixed-use low-carbon city of extension area
and whole area
District scale, at the underdeveloped area of
Shenzhen
Offering favourable investment packages and low
land prices to low-carbon industrial investors, and
engaging in place production, marketing, and
consumption
2
Kaifaqu + xincheng
+ Low-carbon
Low carbon
Low-carbon
Kaifaqu + xincheng
+ Low-carbon
The other three principals are large development potential, strategic industry, high relevance (ILCC,
no date).
14
Role of Urban
Planning
Measure of
success
6.
Guiding the low-carbon development of industry
and city
Increase of GDP and reduction of carbon emission
(GDP carbon intensity is a reference but not
mandatory)
Low-carbon
Low-carbon
Conclusions
Based upon existing studies on the progress of China’s development mode from the
“Development Zones” (kaifaqu) of 1990s to the “New Cities” (xincheng) of the 2000s, this
study investigates the emerging and high-profile development practice in recent years – the
low-carbon city – through an analysis of the renowned case of the International Low-Carbon
City (ILCC) in Shenzhen. The study of the ILCC development strategies has been elaborated
under the themes of “place production”, “place consumption” and “place marketing” to
incorporate detail discussion on ILCC’s financing and investment system, land development
approaches, actors and actors’ roles, and regulatory measures. The analysis has shown that
ILCC’s development demonstrates some features of both kaifaqu and xincheng development
modes, while it also presents peculiar low carbon characteristics. Compared to kaifaqu and
xincheng developments, the current preliminary development of the low-carbon branded
ILCC project is distinctive in its low-carbon industrial development over unitary industrial
production or traditional urban movement.
Although China’s low-carbon city development is still in the initial stage, progress can be
seen from real practices. It is showed that the low-carbon development in the ILCC project is
mainly motivated by municipal and local governments to stimulate future developers and
high-tech corporations, and to create attractive and low-carbon industrial areas. Moreover,
positive incentive policies for promoting the transformation, which is from traditional urban
development to low-carbon development, are the main approach adopted in the ILCC project.
This study has provided a glimpse into the current implementation of the ILCC project and
could be a reference for future study on the project’s prospect and evaluation as it proceeds.
Moreover, since low-carbon cities are initiated to identify a transition way to a less carbonintensive form of economic development, this analysis of the real project’s development
process could inform the discourse and research of China’s low carbon city development
attempts.
Acknowledgments
This paper was supported by the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC) [project
number 71461137005] “Smart eco-cities for a green economy: a comparative study of Europe
and China”.
15
Reference
Baeumler, A., Chen, M., Iuchi, K. & Suzuki, H. 2012a. Eco-Cities And Low-Carbon Cities:
The China Context And Global Perspectives. In: Baeumler, A., Ijjasz-Vasquez, E. &
Mehndiratta, S. (Eds.) Sustainable Low-Carbon City Development In China.
Washington, Dc: World Bank.
Baeumler, A., Ijjasz-Vasquez, E. & Mehndiratta, S. 2012b. Sustainable Low-Carbon City
Development In China. Directions In Development;Countries And Regions,
Washington, Dc., World Bank.
Bi, G. (2015). Shenzhen International Low Carbon City Brings better living for Pingdi
residents.
Shenzhen
Economic
Daily,
[online]
p.A08.
Available
at:
http://szsb.sznews.com/html/2015-07/10/content_3276589.htm [Accessed 11 Jan.
2017].
Brenner, N. and Theodore, N. 2002. Cities and the geographies of “actually existing
neoliberalism.’ In Brenner, N. and Theodore, N. (Eds.), Spaces of neoliberalism:
Urban restructuring in North America and Western Europe (pp. 2-32). Oxford:
Blackwell.
Cai, M. & Wang, Y. M. 2010. A Study On The Transition Of Tourism Cities Based On LowCarbon Perspective. Human Geography, 5, 32-35.
De Jong, M., Wang, D. & Yu, C. 2013. Exploring The Relevance Of The Eco-City Concept
In China: The Case Of Shenzhen Sino-Dutch Low Carbon City. Journal Of Urban
Technology, 20, 95-113.
De Jong, M., Joss, S., Schraven, D., Zhan, C. & Weijnen, M. 2015. Sustainable–Smart–
Resilient–Low Carbon–Eco–Knowledge Cities; Making Sense Of A Multitude Of
Concepts Promoting Sustainable Urbanization. Journal Of Cleaner Production, 109,
25-38.
Dong, W. & Hao, G. 2014. A Study On Construction Path Of Shenzhen International LowCarbon City. Applied Mechanics & Materials, 1750-1755.
Hsing, Y.-T. 2012. The Great Urban Transformation: Politics Of Land And Property In
China, Oxford University Press.
16
Hu, B., Luo, J., Chen, C. & Li, B. 2016. Evaluating Low-Carbon City Development in China:
Study of five national pilot cities. In: SONG, L. (ed.) China's new sources of
economic growth: reform, resources and climate change. ANU Press.
Khanna, N., Fridley, D. & Hong, L. 2014. China's Pilot Low-Carbon City Initiative: A
Comparative Assessment Of National Goals And Local Plans. Sustainable Cities And
Society, 12, 110-121.
ILCC, no date. Shenzhen International Low Carbon City Officical Brochure. [online]
Available at: http://www.ilcc.com.cn/UpFiles/bpic/2015-03/20150303080058033.pdf
[Accessed 10 Jan. 2017].
ILCC.com,
no
date.
ILCC’s
official
website.
[online]
Available
at:
http://ilcc.com.cn/Overview/aboutUs.aspx [Accessed 10 Jan. 2017].
ILCC, 2016. Shenzhen International Low Carbon City Annual Report (2015). Beijing,
Jiuzhou Press.
Liu, Z., Yixin, D., Changgui, D. & Qi, Y. 2009. Low- Carbon City: Concepts, International
Practice And Implications For China. Urban Studies, 16, 1-7.
Liu, Z. & Salzberg, A. 2012. Developing Low-Carbon Cities in China: Local Governance,
Municipal Finance, and Land-Use Planning—The Key Underlying Drivers. In:
Baeumler, A., Ijjasz-VASQUEZ, E. & Mehndiratta, S. (eds.) Sustainable LowCarbon City Development in China. Washington DC: The World Bank.
National Development and Reform Commission, 2012. National Development and Reform
Commission issues notice on the second batch of pilot low-carbon provinces and
cities.
[online]
Available
at:
http://qhs.ndrc.gov.cn/gzdt/201212/t20121205_517419.html [Accessed 9 Jan. 2017].
Shao, Z. 2015. New Eco-City, Low-Carbon New City, Low-Carbon Eco-City, Sun City. In:
Shao, Z. (Ed.) The New Urban Area Development: A Case Study In China. Springer
Berlin Heidelberg.
Shen, J. (2011). Suburban development in Shanghai: A case of Songjiang. Unpublished Phd
thesis. School of City and Regional Planning: Cardiff University
Shenzhen Housing and Construction Bureau, 2014. Notice on furthering decentralisation to
accelerating the Development and Construction of Key Regions. [online] Available at:
17
http://www.sz.gov.cn/zjj/bsfw/zdyw_1/jsgc/xgfg/201411/t20141128_2714188.htm
[Accessed 7 Jan. 2017].
Su, M., Zheng, Y., Yin, X., Zhang, M., Wei, X., Chang, X. & Qin, Y. 2016. Practice Of LowCarbon City In China: The Status Quo And Prospect. Energy Procedia, 88, 44-51.
Su, M. R., Chen, B., Xing, T., Chen, C. & Yang, Z. F. 2012a. Development Of Low-Carbon
City In China: Where Will It Go? Procedia Environmental Sciences, 13, 1143-1148.
Su, M. R., Liang, C., Chen, B., Chen, S. & Yang, Z. F. 2012b. Low-Carbon Development
Patterns: Observations Of Typical Chinese Cities. Energies, 5, Pp 291 - 304.
Sztqjf.com,
no
date.
CDG’s
official
website.
[online]
Available
at:
http://www.sztqjf.com/about.aspx?tags=3 [Accessed 10 Jan. 2017].
Wang, X., Berrah, N., Peng, X., Sugar, L. & Du, H. 2012. Low-Carbon Cities In China:
Characteristics, Roadmap, Band Indicators. In: Baeumler, A., Ijjasz-Vasquez, E. &
Mehndiratta, S. (Eds.) Sustainable Low-Carbon City Development In China.
Washington, Dc.: World Bank.
Yang, H. (2014) Innovative and Practical Exploration of Shenzhen International Low Carbon
City’s Development Mode ( 深 圳 国 际 低 碳 城 开 发 模 式 创 新 与 实 践 探 索 ).
Construction Economy, 376, 6-9.
Yang, L. & Li, Y. 2013. Low-Carbon City In China. Sustainable Cities And Society, 9, 62-66.
Zhou, N., He, G. & William, C. 2012. China's Development Of Low Carbon Eco-Cities And
Associated Indicator Systems. Berkeley: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
18